Monday, August 30, 2010

DR. LAURA

Ten years ago, when I lived in Malibu, I listened to Dr. Laura Schlessinger as I drove to the gym where I worked out, I heard her ads. I knew she was an author, and some sort of radio psychiatric adviser. It was a 25 minute drive.

Dr. Laura on the radio became my car buddy. Despite some of her moralistic book titles, and over-emphasis on being a stay-at-home-mom, "my son's mother," I liked her unpretentious, friendly tone with strangers. Sometimes there were interesting debates with men and women who passionately disagreed with her. Even then, she responded with an open mind that impressed me.

Since those days, and my ever-expanding use of the Internet, I haven't had much time to listen to her or visit her Website. She had a television show for a while, but the look of her didn't work -- the honest, friendly, real Dr. Laura seemed rather pinched, and schoolmarmish.

"Nigger-nigger-nigger," she said, loud and clear, in a radio conversation with a black woman caller, reminding the woman that black comics and black sports heroes jokingly called each other nigger, and wasn't it ridiculous that whites were called bigots if they used the word.

The transcript of the actual conversation reveals that Dr. Laura was probably not listening carefully to the caller's question. Dr. L went on to tell the caller -- "A lot of blacks voted for Obama simply 'cause he was half-black. Didn't matter what he was gonna do in office, it was a black thing. You gotta know that. That's not a surprise!"

Dr. L:(Continuing) "We have more complaining about racism than ever. I mean, I think that's hilarious."

Caller: "But I think, honestly, it's because there's more white people afraid of a black man taking over the nation."

Dr. L:"It's hypersensitivity, bred by black activists. I really thought that once we had a black president, the attempt to demonize whites hating blacks would stop, but it seems to have grown, and I don't get it. Yes, I do. It's all about power."

Dr. L, repeated "nigger-nigger-nigger," once again, to show the caller how unimportant it was and implied that the fuss over the N word was silly.

The caller never got a chance to explain that she'd called Dr. Laura because her white husband's white friends seemed to ignore the fact that she was black. Their insensitivity upset the woman, and she wanted Dr. Laura's advice on how to handle it.

That Dr. Laura said "nigger" eleven times during her conversation with the caller created a furor. Listeners complained. The media grabbed the news and blew it up into a major hot air balloon. Bigger and bigger it became. Suddenly, Dr. Laura, who's been broadcasting on the radio nationally and internationally for thirty years, announced she was going to stop broadcasting on the radio because she couldn't say what she wanted to say, or use a word she wanted to use. Of course, this swelled into a huge pro-and-con debate about the N word, and freedom of speech.

Even as the babble, moans, and approval/disapproval comments were beginning to lose air, Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, and other anti-democrats huffed and puffed angrily, supporting the beleaguered Dr. Laura -- they believed her first amendment rights were being infringed upon. I think they were letting it be known that Schlessinger's N-word troubles revealed the deep aversion normal Americans have for the man in the White House.

The anti-Obamites use anything, of course, that's in the air, to show everyone that even his supporters don't like/respect him. With knowing smiles, they tell everyone that things will be better, of course, after the November elections cripple all the foolish legislation that the wrong guy in the White House cannot possibly implement.

So, does it matter if Dr. Laura said "nigger" or used the N word?

Her "Dr." is based on her PhD in physiology (it's a subcategory of biology), not psychology or psychiatry. Dr. Laura is not a counselor, adviser, mentor -- she makes blanket statements based on what she feels. For example, she has said, "homosexuality is a biological error," and quite recently at a military base, she told a depressed, war wife who was worrying about her husband, "He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're bitching ? You're not dodging bullets, so I don't want to hear any whining."

Yes, I think Dr. Laura Schlessinger is an interesting celebrity, a rather unique sort of entertainer. Visit her Website. It's beautifully organized -- pick a topic. I can't say it will help you, but you'll have fun -- you'll get an earful of interesting advice, free of charge.

1 comment:

Dr. Laura is a very disturbed woman who has no right to be spewing advice to anyone. She totally neglected her own dying mother and had no relationship with her at all for years. What a lovely woman she is!!!! Notice that she is only on stations that carry other hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh and Gelnn Beck. She has no training as a psychologist or social worker. She is a raging biggot.

I will not go on anymore about just how much I dislike this woman and what she stands for. I will say that saying such a dreadful biggoted word, and on the air no less, is without feeling or regard for anyone who is not your mirror image.

In my own life I have never, ever used any racial, ethinic or homophobic word. It makes me ill and she makes me ill.

HOW I GOT HERE

I started out as a modern dancer, contemporary, but balletic. I didn't want to be a swan, or a barefoot dancer. I wanted to dance to the music that thrilled me as a child, and made me want to be a dancer.

I began writing in the truck my first husband, Mark Ryder and I bought, in order to carry our set, props, and costumes for a long one-night-stands tour -- eighty-eighty performances in eighty-eight cities.

We were performing "Romeo and Juliet" nightly, but our marriage was breaking up. Every day while our stage manager drove us two-hundred miles or so to the next booking, I'd type a detailed description of last night -- what we did well, what we argued about, and a travelogue about the town, and comments from the people at the nightly party.

Recovering from the trip and the divorce, I sent my "car book" to a friend who said -- "Em, it's great,but ..." And that became rewrites, and another book. Then, my marriage to actor John Cullum, and then a play that got produced, and another book, big hopes because a famous agent loved it.The title and concept changed five times -- now it's been published, finally, as "Somebody, Woman of the Century." You can buy it, or read about it and my other five novels on Emily Frankel.com